Caleb Flynn told police he was asleep in his daughters' room when he heard the shots that killed his wife, Ashley. On Friday, jurors heard about data from his Apple Watch, iPhone and AirPods that investigators say showed movement during part of the time he claimed to be sleeping. The question now hanging over his murder trial is as unsettling as it is simple: what was moving in the Flynn home that night-and what can the devices actually prove?
An Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation specialist walked jurors through the device records. According to WHIO's courtroom report, the data showed movement between the time Flynn stopped responding to messages from Alleigha Botner, with whom he was having an affair, at about 12:45 a.m. and his 911 call around 2:30 a.m. Prosecutors are asking jurors to weigh that timeline against Flynn's account of the night. His defense pressed the specialist on the records' limits, including whether a device registering movement establishes that its wearer was walking or awake.
Jurors also watched Flynn's first two recorded police interviews, made in the hours after Ashley's death. He told detectives that a cough had led him to sleep away from the couple's bedroom and that he later fell asleep with their daughters. He said he heard the shots from there. WHIO reported that investigators are examining differences between those interviews and what Flynn told 911 dispatchers. A third, longer interview video is expected when court resumes Monday.
Friday brought another lead back into the courtroom: a tip alleging a murder-for-hire plot. An FBI agent testified that the man identified as the source of the story told investigators he had offered a theory, had no reason to believe it and had received no information confirming it. Defense attorney Patrick Mulligan questioned the steps investigators took to pursue the tip. That exchange left jurors to consider both the weakness of the account and whether police did enough to check it.
The prosecution says Flynn shot Ashley and staged a break-in. Flynn has pleaded not guilty, and his defense says he woke to find that someone had killed her. Investigators have not recovered the murder weapon. With prosecutors indicating that only a few witnesses remain, the recorded interviews and disputed device timeline could become central to how jurors assess those competing accounts. The state has not yet rested, and the defense has not yet presented its case.
